Syracuse Football vs Wake Forest Recap: The Dark Side

*Boy, could this list have been longer. But a crazy overtime win tends to numb some of your faults. Certainly a few things to note though.

Frank Ordonez/The Post Standard 2011

*Absolutely no doubt what sticks out like a sore thumb for Syracuse for all the wrong reasons even after a thrilling 36-29 overtime win over the Demon Deacons.

The secondary.

Yikes.

Wake Forest threw for 326 yards, averaging 13.6 yards per catch. 326 of their 406 total yards were in the air. 14 of their 23 first downs were passes.

For all the talk of the interior of the defensive line and linebackers being a "weakness" due to inexperience, it was the supposed "strength" of the defense that looked the worst in this game.

You can argue that a few pass plays were made due to lack of a pass rush on Wake Forest QB Tanner Price, but for the most part Wake receivers were just beating SU corners/safeties one on one.

It was somewhat of a surprise to see Ri'Shard Anderson beat out Keon Lyn for a starting spot, even with Lyn hurt during a good part of training camp. Anderson looked lost for a good number of plays before leaving the game with an injury.

Not a good sign either. Phillip Thomas and Kevyn Scott returned to the game, but were both banged up during it. Lyn didn't look fully recovered from injury as well. A banged up and inefficient secondary=nightmares with a quarterback like Matt Barkely at USC looming in 2 weeks.

Scott Shafer, luckily, has a few extra days and a game against a very winnable opponent in Rhode Island next week to fix the leak in the boat.

But there is no question what tops his "to-do" list here early in the season.

*This would have been a bigger story had Syracuse lost. Since they won, it is just A story, but one worth noting.

I didn't like Doug Marrone's use of timeouts and some conservative approaches in the 4th quarter.

Ryan Nassib had to burn one timeout in the 3rd quarter so that only gave you two.

Why did Marrone called a timeout after Deon Goggins made a runs top and prior to an SU punt? I wasn't sure what was going on there and it was a timeout you would have liked to have in your back pocket for a more crucial point of the game.

Also, why didn't Marrone take a shot at the end zone prior to the blocked field goal? All the running plays were a bit too conservative to me for an offense that had momentum back. It screamed for play action or some sort of play to go for the TD instead of positioning for a field goal.

Sure, easy to say after the kick got blocked, but check my Twitter timeline. I was questioning the move as it happened.

Both are footnotes now, but would have stood out a lot more in a loss and were both puzzling decisions from Marrone.

*One reason why that wasn't the case was the offensive line's pass protection. Wake Forest only had one sack, but Nassib had to make several throws on the run and never really found a comfort zone in terms of timing until that fourth quarter when a series of events swung momentum to Syracuse.

But even with that factored in, Bailey's TD was a great individual effort, one TD drive (Bailey's other TD) was helped along greatly by some foolish Wake Forest penalties.

Macky McPherson settled in after getting blown by Nikita Whitlock on a sack, but he has some work to do to settle in.

Justin Pugh had an uncharacteristic penalty.

I think they will be fine in the long run, but overall, it just wasn't the O-Line's best night.

*You expect penalties early on, but there were some real gut punchers in this game, including Dorian Graham's roughing penalty on one punt return and a kickoff going out of bounds, giving Wake Forest prime field position to throw a bomb to Chris Givens for a touchdown. You don't make that call if you get the ball at the 20 instead of the 40.

*Syracuse was 3-for-11 on third down overall.

*Syracuse got away with it in this game, but there won't be many box scores where you trail total yards, time of possession, first downs, and third down conversions and win.